ICE VEINS
by limonize
Summary: Presupposes that Lulu has left for California


ICE VEINS (or "Nick the Stalker")  
  
Nick is peering up at her, over a large hedge surrounding her apartment complex. His eyes are locked directly on her.  
  
Dana glances down and sees him again. Only his penetrating eyes and hair are visible to her . You fucking perv! she thinks to herself. She angrily picks up the phone and dials 9-1-1. She shouts into the phone agitatedly. "I want to report a peeping Tom! Er.. I mean - a stalker! There's this asshole looking through my window again."  
  
~ ~ ~  
  
"Dr. Meade here returning your call, Mr -..?" Trevor Meade glances at his wall clock. It's getting close to twelve, and he's feeling impatient to get to attend an important luncheon date.  
  
" - Fallin. Burton Fallin. Dr. Meade?" announces Burton. Burton feels relieved to be finally talking directly to Nicholas' psychiatrist. "I realize you're probably a busy man - like me - " Burton chuckles nervously, "I..ah. need to talk to you about Nicholas, my son."  
  
Trevor Meade hesitates, momentarily confused. "Oh, yes - Nick!" realising finally which of his patients Burton is referring to. "I'm headed out, Mr. Fallin - you can call me Trevor - but if you would like to stop by late this afternoon." his voice trails off briefly, as he reaches for his appointment book, "I'd be happy to see you. I can set aside twenty minutes for us."  
  
"Five okay?" replied Burton.  
  
"Five." Trevor confirms, penciling it in after his four o'clock appointment. He hears Burton hang up. He notes that Burton's voice has a deeper, more resonant quality than Nick's and subconsciously notes that Burton probably takes himself a little less seriously than Nick. But there is also an unmistakably similar quality to their parting manner. A certain kind of finality. It will be interesting to meet Nick's father, muses Trevor.  
  
~ ~ ~  
  
"I don't know how to say this.." begins Burton, looking around Trevor Meade's office, noting the décor is rather sparse. Burton then turns to face him directly, "but ah.I received a phone call at the end of last week from a certain court prosecutor - he's a friend of mine - about a young lady.." Burton's expression is one of immense pain. He scowls so deeply that his eyebrows are touching. A tear wells, and he rubs it away, as he tries maintain his composure.  
  
"Take your time," says Trevor, surmising that whatever has upset Burton so deeply, must be a doozy.  
  
"She..." Burton shades his face from view with his hand, but continues anyway, "She told him that Nicholas is STALKING her - and that she has reported him to the police, after warning him repeatedly to stop."  
  
"I see." Trevor adjusts his eyeglasses, and gives Burton a couple of moments to collect himself. He asks Burton in an even voice: "Can you tell me a little more about this? - I cannot discuss with you what Nick shares with me in therapy, but what you tell me may be helpful."  
  
Burton finds it difficult to focus on explaining the situation unemotionally. He reflects briefly on the effect that Lulu's departure has had on Nick, and continues: "Ever since this woman that he used to work with - and was pretty close to - moved away, Nicholas has been very distracted. He's..he behaves strangely. He's a lot moodier these days.which is not unlike Nicholas - with me, at any rate - but until now. well - it's rarely impacted on his work. Really, he's a pretty stable kid, considering." Burton adds to this to underscore the fact that his son is normal.  
  
"Considering?" Trevor asks him.  
  
"Well, my ex-wife and I." Burton is uncomfortable discussing his family life with anyone, let alone strangers. Trevor certainly qualifies as a stranger.  
  
"This conversation is privileged, Mr. Fallin. I DO want to be of help, if I can." says Trevor, trying to assure him.  
  
Burton relaxes somewhat. "Nicholas' mother got sick and died when he was a boy," he explains. "Nicholas became quite withdrawn and rather uncommunicative. Not in a big way," adds Burton for good measure. "However, my wife and I were estranged even prior to that event."  
  
"Nick has some hostility over that?" asks Trevor.  
  
"Yeah." Burton smiles sheepishly, and stands to begin slowly pacing, and turns to the side. "Yes, Trevor, he certainly does!" Burton smiles at him wryly, as he slides his hands into his pockets and stiffens them. Trevor has got that one right, Burton concedes. "Nicholas has obviously.discussed some of that with you, then?" Burton asks him self-consciously.  
  
"Spousal separations and divorces often leave children feeling responsible or abandoned, or hostile - and occasionally in complete denial.- and combinations thereof - it's a very, classic reaction." Trevor elucidates, trusting this will ease Burton's obvious guilt a bit.  
  
But it does little to assuage Burton.  
  
"Is he doing this to get back at me?" asks Burton tensely, now staring out of the window, folding his arms.  
  
"I doubt that, Burton - I can call you Burton, can I?" Trevor looks up to watch Burton's reaction to his answer.  
  
"Ah, sure. Well." Burton hesitates, "so.why is he doing something like this?"  
  
"If he IS doing what this young woman says, it's likely a response to feeling great powerlessness in his most important relationships." answers Trevor.  
  
"Powerlessness? Burton retorts quickly, "I don't understand! Nicholas has the world at his fingertips. And he's a very good lawyer!" Burton is confused, and also feeling somewhat angry and frustrated.  
  
Trevor is taken aback at how palpable Nick's problems seem, listening to Burton talk about his son. Burton appears unwilling, or unable to relate to Nick's powerless feelings and their likely origins. Although Burton is not his client, he thinks that he should be somebody's. Trevor elects to explains to him simply: "That says little about his ability to take command the intimate relationships of his life in a fulfilling way."  
  
"You mean like his mother and me?" asks Burton, feeling very reluctant to examine any role he might be playing in Nick's situation.  
  
"That's exactly what I mean."  
  
"I see." says Burton, continuing to stare for a long time, out of the window..  
  
~ ~ ~  
  
As Burton sits across from the young, female accuser in Hart Langley's office, he is struck by her startling resemblance to Lulu Archer. He finds himself staring at her a great deal, realizing that Nicholas has being doing the same thing, lately - but for entirely different reasons.  
  
Hart speaks first.  
  
"Dana, this is Burton Fallin, Nicholas's father. Burton has indicated to me how much he appreciates you agreeing to meet with him here to help solve a mutual problem: Nicholas' behavior toward you."  
  
"Hello" said Dana, with a trace of sourness. She knew Nicholas' father's was not to be blamed for Nicholas' actions, but was less than thrilled to be meeting him, anyway.  
  
Burton was not deterred by her attitude, appreciating only too well that he had better extend the olive branch for the Fallins, if she were Attilla the Hun.  
  
"First, let me say, that I'm so sorry to hear that Nicholas has done things to bother you" begins Burton in a low voice. "He.doesn't normally behave the way he has been behaving lately and I'm so very sorry he's putting you through this. Really, I am!" Burton says this very empathically, although he is thinking primarily about Nick and how to avert any further problems from Dana.  
  
Dana relaxes her guard a little.  
  
"He scares the shit out of me, you know?! It's like, when I get out of work. everywhere I go.he's always lurking around! She pulls her skirt end over her knees more tightly.  
  
"Has..has he ever said anything to you, or..?" Burton asked, intensely curious.  
  
"He walked up to me one day - it was the first time I ever saw him -" Dana recounts again for Burton's benefit - she has told the story to a few people now . "When I was outside Tracy's Boutique, going through the "Specials" clothing rack, just out of the blue this guy - your son - he walks up to me and says, "You look so-o beautiful!!" She pauses to gauge Burton's reaction. Seeing none, she adds, "And he just stands there, staring at me."  
  
Burton is tempted to insert a comment, but catches himself just in time.  
  
Dana does not feel as creeped out by Burton's close presence as she does by Nicholas' despite the family resemblance - the foreheads with their center crease - but it bothers her that she has been asked to meet with Hart Langley and Burton Fallin at Hart's strong suggestion. Men tend to stick together, she thinks. Although she feels confident that Hart is clearly trying to work out a solution which will put an end to the problem, she isn't sure if the meeting will have value. She has it firmly in her feelings, that Nicholas Fallin is a weirdo, probably capable of anything, and she had a hard time believing Burton can or will doing anything which could help.  
  
Hart interjects:  
  
"And then what, Dana?"  
  
"Well, a couple of days later, I'm in Starbucks, sucking back a cappuccino, just having a good time with my friend, Roxanne, and he appears out of nowhere, and invites himself to sit at our table. He was all dressed up and he looked pretty good, but he had this weird stare.  
  
"That tended to unnerve you?" offers Hart.  
  
"Yeah.it unnerved me. So, I, we - Roxanne and I - we told him, sorry, but we were just getting ready to leave anyway."  
  
"And so you left?"  
  
"Well, he walked away, and so we decided to just stay there and talk more more - since he wasn't there anymore anyway." Dana continues, now wondering what Burton is thinking. Burton chuckles nervously. He wants to get on Dana's good side - if in fact, she has one.  
  
"Not just taking any bum that comes along!" quips Burton with a grin. I don't see how this relates to what Dana has just said.  
  
Dana now smiles as well, still feeling self-conscious, "Well, we didn't know him, and, you know."  
  
"Absolutely!" says Burton. "A young woman can't be too careful nowadays! It was a little different when I was younger, but there's some very dangerous types out there, and young ladies have to be careful!" Hart notes how skillfully Burton is making it clear, that his son is not even remotely in that category.  
  
"But then, when I left, just as I was coming close to my place, there he was on the sidewalk just outside my place. I was really freaked out!" continues Dana.  
  
"A little embarrassed, too, maybe?" volunteers Burton sympathetically.  
  
"Yeah. That too." she admits ruefully.  
  
"I told him "Look asshole, I don't know what you think you're doing, following me around, but just get lost!"  
  
Hart asks: "What did Nicholas say then?"  
  
"He said something like, it's okay, I'm not...trying to follow you around or anything, I just wanted to give you something."  
  
Burton asks, leaning forward in his hair, "He gave you something? What was it?" .  
  
"It was this pink top with a heart on it - the same one that I'd spent a lot of time looking at, at Tracy's, that first time I saw him."  
  
"And that was too personal a gift for someone you didn't know?" offered Hart, helping her to express her discomfort.  
  
"Yeah. Yeah, it definitely was." replied Dana. "I mean, I don't even know his name, you know?"  
  
"I see." replies Burton.  
  
Hart continues to draw the story from her.  
  
Burton is temporarily lost in his own thoughts. What is the matter with this woman, calling 9-1-1? Can't she understand that Nicholas is just simply a bit fascinated by her, or has a schoolboy crush on her?  
  
Dana continues, and Burton is suddenly snapped out of his private thoughts, by her last phrase:  
  
" - I thought he was going to jack off or something!"  
  
"Er pardon me, I kind of missed what you said just before then?" Burton asks as he tries to conceal the 3-bell alarm that has just gone off in his legally-trained head.  
  
Hart steps in, seeing Burton's well-concealed panic. "Uh Dana, what was Nick doing, exactly?"  
  
"Well, he was standing outside my place, looking over the bushes up to my window. Just the top of his head. He could see me see him, but he didn't go away. He just kept staring at me."  
  
"How long did he stay there?" Hart asked.  
  
"A couple of minutes. But it was really CREEPY. I mean, I already told him to get lost before, you know? And I thought he might be jacking off behind the bushes, or something."  
  
"What made you think that he was?'  
  
"Well, I couldn't see his whole face, and he wouldn't show it. Maybe he thought I didn't know who it was, but I knew - I knew that stare. She clenched her jaw, as she elaborated: "And there was this guy, when I was going to high school - he used to come and watch me through my bedroom window and jack off, so I thought he might be doing that too!" Dana was beginning to feel panicky and defensive herself now, with both men staring at her while she described the scenario. Damn! Why did I ever agree to come here?? she thought to herself.  
  
Burton broke the awkward silence.  
  
"It must have been rather frightening for you, not knowing what he was doing there, or why!" He gave her a knowing look.  
  
"Yeah, damn rights! Damn rights it was! Like he never said what he wanted, he just kept staring! You know?"  
  
"Do you think you would have been able to hear him, if he'd called out?" asks Burton.  
  
"I don't know.probably. But I had already told him to get lost. Like, what did he think he was doing? And so sneaky, like - like - and like he thought I wouldn't figure it out? That it was him?" Dana was feeling defensive. Somehow it didn't sound so bad, what Nick had done, but he had no right..  
  
Hart wants to wrap things up, but he knows there is more that Burton has to hear. He twists his body uncomfortably and re-folds his legs.  
  
"Was that the last time you saw, Nicholas?" he questions.  
  
"No. There was two more times. If it hadn't been for that, I wouldn't even know his name." Dana replies.  
  
It occurs to Burton, that this woman might have ice water in her veins. If she does, Nicholas is facing an even worser problem than fascination with this Lulu-lookalike - being on probation, and being an "officer of the court" who is expected not to bring the practice of law into disrepute. He winces inwardly, scared of what she might recount next.  
  
A stalking charge would not be a good thing.  
  
End of Part 1 


End file.
